


Piano Man

by robinasnyder



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Piano, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 19:14:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/917010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robinasnyder/pseuds/robinasnyder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John plays piano for his father. Then he plays it for himself. Then he plays it for his job. Then he plays it for his wife. Then he plays it for a strange lawyer who comes into town.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Piano Man

John had started playing the piano because his dad told him too. When his dad disappeared he kept playing anyway because he thought that maybe his dad would come back and he wanted his dad to see how he’d progressed. When his love for his father turned into anger and hate he nearly stopped playing until he realized that he could earn money that way. At first it was helping the elderly piano teacher for a few dollars a week. Then it was playing at school as a job. Finally he started playing at bars to earn money. 

He stopped long enough to go to war and get shot. When he got back and healed up enough he needed to play just because it felt like the only time he could think. He would replay every part of his two years overseas and it would all be a nightmare. Every good moment ran into every bad moment and he’d wake up unable to breathe. He tried working at an auto body shop, but the sounds of the shop set something off and suddenly he’d had to leave on an excuse for a smoke break when he didn’t smoke. He just thought his platoon was under siege again. 

When he played piano, though, he could think and he could separate. He took a night at a club playing for a few extra bucks one evening, just to prove he could make money some way, since he knew he was about to be fired for slacking on the job. That night when he played he started to think of the war, but he could think of it and still breathe. He could think of his friends and not just getting shot. Eventually he could think of getting shot and not relive it. 

Once he started playing he never stopped. Which was how he met Mary Campbell. They’d been in school together. She was a year younger. She’d snuck out from home with some friends of hers to a club, just to see what it was like. She’d gotten a little drunk and climbed up on stage to sing with him. She sang and sang while he played. 

He knew he loved her then. She didn’t have a pros voice, but she sang like she meant it and no one was wincing when she sang. She sang like a hoarse bird and John loved it. She sang all the time after that because he asked her. At some point in their courtship she started to go to singing lessons and actually learned to sing.

Maybe they’d never be more than a lounge singer and a lounge player, but they loved what they did because they were together. After the tragic accident that killed her family he took Mary out to town to someplace else where they could make money working for a bar like they always did. At night they lay awake together. Mary whispered about wanting a white picket fence and John whispered about wanting to own his own business. 

Mary so badly wanted to be a proper homemaker but they both knew that she wasn’t cut out for just that. So when John found a man willing to sell them his place, they both jumped on the chance. Mary was brilliant with making drinks and doing the books. John played piano and threw out any man who got too drunk. Best of all it was theirs. They owed a business before they owned a house. 

John played every night. He played out every nightmare and every day dream. He played out every fight and every piece of love he and Mary ever shared. He played his life because it was either play or lose his mind. And that was how he met the next love of his life, after his piano, his wife and his sons. 

His name was Lucifer. He was a slick city lawyer who’d bombed spectacularly out of his family’s law firm and moved to a completely different state. He dressed the way a man dressed when he wanted people to look at him. It wasn’t like Winchester’s was a dive bar, but on their best nights they never had guys in three piece suits. No one trusted those guys. Lucifer came in that way anyway. And he just fit, beyond all odds he just fit. 

“You know,” he said one evening when John was tending bar while Mary was at home with their sick sons. “If you were ever interested, I wouldn’t say no to sex.” 

John choked on nothing because it was either that or punch one of his customers in the face, though Lucifer would deserve it and no one would say otherwise. It was just not the man John wanted to be an he was always afraid of what would happen if he flipped that switch. 

“I’m married,” John said. 

“I know,” Lucifer said, throwing back his shot. “Got to have her too, wouldn’t dream of it otherwise.” 

“We’re married with kids,” John hissed, lowering his voice. 

“I know, sweet boys. I like the idea of ‘Uncle Lucifer’, has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” Lucifer smiled and John knew he was in so much trouble. 

Mary agreed after Lucifer spoke with her. The three of them tumbled in and out of any bed they could find for a while. It was like when John and Mary had first been married all over again. Except they had a third person who wanted to learn their bodies and whom they wanted to learn. As slick and controlled as Lucifer was in real life, he was desperate and fell apart easily, especially with Mary, who could bend him to her every whim, which John always enjoyed watching. Lucifer was tender with John, almost like he was shy. 

Outside of their activities behind closed doors Lucifer became almost as tender to them. Lucifer had never just wanted sex. He’d wanted their family. He played with the boys, read to Sam constantly. He played the violin with John some nights at the bar. He sang with Mary. He did all of litigation to make certain that if their little arrangement ever came out that their business, home and children would be protected. 

“I love them, John,” Lucifer told John one evening when Sam and Dean had fallen asleep on his legs. “I didn’t think I would, not like this. It’s just…” 

“It’s just,” John pressed, placing a light kiss on Lucifer’s neck. Lucifer tilted his head to accept. 

“It’s everything,” Lucifer said quietly. 

“I know,” John said. “I couldn’t believe it either.” 

“I hope that the day never comes when you feel like you have to send me away,” Lucifer said quietly. 

“Why would we do that?” Mary asked, coming into the room then. 

“Because,” Lucifer said. “I thought my family wouldn’t do that either, but they did.” 

“Not this time,” Mary said. She scooped up Sam and kissed Lucifer on the top of the head. John got Dean and they put the boys to bed and then went back to get Lucifer. They tucked him between them that night. John rubbed his back while Mary played with his hair.


End file.
